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  1. gerald

    Ideal temperature for ideal sex ratio

    I wonder if the various plastic and rubber items we use in our tanks, and/or household products and skin-care products, may have chemicals that disrupt endocrine hormones and affect sexual development in fish, in addition to temperature and pH effects?
  2. gerald

    Constant temperature/ variable temperature

    I have never been to S. America, but I've seen that phenomenon many times in local swamps and ponds. In Feb-Mar many fish will move into sunny spots in shallow water, especially among leaf litter and plant beds, to get a bit of solar heating.
  3. gerald

    Constant temperature/ variable temperature

    Fish that live in shallow lakes and ponds probably experience daily temperature cycles like you describe, but most Apistos (far as I know) live in streams in forested areas where there's not likely to be much (if any) daily cycle in water temperature. Rainfall and seasons will certainly change...
  4. gerald

    New Apisto Cacatuoides Super Red

    I'm not sure what problems mine had, and the fancy domesticated strains of dwarf cichlids have goofy pigment anyway, so it may not have anything to do with stress or disease in your fish. That's why I asked about cacatuoides -- maybe some of our local experts will chime in. Anyway, keeping...
  5. gerald

    New Apisto Cacatuoides Super Red

    Does that darkening on the rear part of the body (on the two yellow fish) mean anything? I have not kept cacatuoides, but have had other dwarf cichlids where partial darkening of the body was a precursor (or early symptom?) of health issues that showed up several weeks later. Welcome Emma and...
  6. gerald

    Lowering ph with peat moss

    I cant really answer your "how dark" question. That depends on the particular batch of peat, how much you use, how long you leave it in the tank, how much water you change, water hardness, and other factors. You'll need to experiment with it. Not sure what your other question "does it clean...
  7. gerald

    Lowering ph with peat moss

    Peat will lower pH and hardness noticeably if your water is already soft (less than 50 mg/liter GH and KH). In harder water you probably wont see much change in pH or GH, since the peat gets saturated quickly with + ions. Either way, the brown organic compounds will leach from the peat...
  8. gerald

    Blackworm & Apistogramma

    The risk of death from over-eating might be LESS if you have a constant supply of blackworms in the tank. Hungry fish that are fed once or twice a day will try to eat worms as fast as they can, but with an in-tank worm population they can eat them more leisurely. Also, when the worms are...
  9. gerald

    Blackworm & Apistogramma

    I always chop them now before feeding to small fish, especially those that tend to slurp and swallow without much chewing. A few times I have seen dwarf cichlids, darters, and certain other fish die soon after gorging on whole un-cut blackworms. I'm guessing what happens is the fish's stomach...
  10. gerald

    Help identifying

    If she looks or acts sick at all, i would NOT get any more Apistos until she appears fully recovered, which I hope she does. Watch out for rapid breathing or loss of appetite - those are signs of potentially serious disease.
  11. gerald

    LFS water

    Your well water, or a mix of well+rain water might be perfect. "Several hours acclimation" may not help much if the final water is lacking certain ions that the fish need. Ultra-soft water is a difficult environment to survive in for fish that did not evolve as blackwater-endemic species.
  12. gerald

    LFS water

    I'd suggest using a low does of Rift Lake Cichlid salts, R.O. Right, or similar salt mix to add some Ca, Mg, K, Na, and Cl ions. A. borellii is not a blackwater endemic species. If they've been living in ion-rich water for awhile, then their ion-uptake cells have adapted to those...
  13. gerald

    Melanoides tuberculata, eggs eaters?

    Egg-predation by snails may depend on what other foods are available. If there's a lot of snails in your breeding tanks, you might consider dropping in a few extra Pleco-wafers or other sinking food during the period while dwarf cichlids are guarding eggs. Most snails are opportunistic and...
  14. gerald

    hi everybody

    Unfortunately no - Elassoma females are plain speckled brown and tan, and neither sex shows any parental care. The male defends the spawning area, but pays no attention to the eggs, and the fry scatter away from the nest area immediately after hatching. They are also not very responsive...
  15. gerald

    Help With H. sp. Moanda

    Hopefully others with Moanda-Jewel-specific experience will chime in. The clues I offered are just very generic "jewel cichlid" observations and might not apply so well to this species.
  16. gerald

    hi everybody

    Welome Sergio -- You'll want a cichlid species that does well with moderate hardness and neutral pH, to keep your plants happy, so no obligate blackwater species. Apisto borellii, trifasciata, panduro, steel-blue, "regani" (using that name loosely), Microgeophagus, Dicrossus, ...? (Some of...
  17. gerald

    Help With H. sp. Moanda

    Great to see you here again! Thought we'd lost you to the licorice world. I've never kept Moanda but based on familiarity with other jewels I'm guessing those are all females. IME (many years ago) male jewel cichlids have yellower fins vs redder in females (these all look more red); and more...
  18. gerald

    Apistogramma Help

    Emperor tetras males get nippy with each other, but ive never had trouble with them fighting with other species.
  19. gerald

    New Apistogramma sp.

    At least it will be easy to pick a scientific name for this one: cordirosa, cordicauda, ...?
  20. gerald

    Sexing some dwarf cichlids

    Some of the modern hyper-pigmented aquarium strains of Apistos showing up these days have females with a surprising amount of male-like color. 15 years ago that yellow fish with red facial speckles would have most likely been a non-dominant male trying its best to look a female to avoid being...
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